The Count of Monte Cristo

Credit : weirdvibrations.com

The name for the brand Montecristo Cigars was inspired by the Alexandre Dumas, père novel The Count of Monte Cristo, which was supposedly a very popular choice among the torcedores (cigar rollers) in their factory to have read by the lector on the rolling floor. According to Wikipedia. Literally a man would sit in the room and read stories.

There are still some cigar companies that follow that practice. Though it’s largely replaced with iPods and MP3 players the practice does still exist within some of the firms.

The readings have specific timetables and generally begin with the headlines of the day’s newspapers then the readers take a break and begin reading the unfinished book from the day before. Historically this was the defacto standard within cigar companies, the practice started in Cuba and was considered standard practice by 1865.